Annapurna Times: High-flying Leicester City are Premier League myth busters

Leicester City are ripping up the rule book with their extraordinary Premier League title charge.

Claudio Ranieiri's side were rated as 5000-1 outsiders for the title after narrowly avoiding relegation at the end of last season, but they sit five points clear of second-placed Tottenham after snatching a 2-2 draw against West Ham on Sunday.

With just four games of the campaign remaining, Leicester are now within touching distance of the first top-flight title in their 132-history - an achievement that would rank as one of the greatest in the history of the game.

Here, we look at some of the myths Leicester have busted on their astonishing rise to the top of the Premier League table…

You have to spend big

History suggests you have to spend big to win big in the Premier League, but Leicester's expenditure on wages and transfers is a fraction of their more illustrious rivals'. PFA Player of the Year nominees Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy and N'Golo Kante cost £350,000, £1m and £5.6m respectively, and the most expensive recruit in their squad is Shinji Okazaki at just £7m.

Their favoured starting XI of Kasper Schmeichel, Danny Simpson, Robert Huth, Wes Morgan, Christian Fuchs, Kante, Danny Drinkwater, Marc Albrighton, Okazaki, Mahrez and Vardy cost a meagre £20m to put together - an eighth of the overall total spent by Manchester City in the summer transfer window alone.

You need title-winning experience

Leicester's heroics also prove title-winning experience might not be all it's cracked up to be. While the likes of Morgan, Drinkwater and Vardy formed the spine of the Foxes team that won the Championship in 2014, former Chelsea defender Robert Huth is their only player to have lifted the Premier League trophy.In fact, the only other Leicester squad members to have won top-flight titles are fringe players Gokhan Inler, who won two Swiss Super League titles with Zurich earlier in his career, and Marcin Wasilewski, who won three Belgian Jupiler League titles during his time at Anderlecht.

Rotation is key

Sir Alex Ferguson used to extol the virtues of squad rotation at Manchester United and Claudio 'Tinkerman' Ranieri was one of its biggest advocates during his time at Chelsea, but the Leicester manager has ditched his old habits and embraced continuity at the King Power Stadium.

Leicester's starting line-up picks itself, with Ranieri naming an unchanged team for the sixth consecutive Premier League game against West Ham. If it wasn't for Vardy's sending off on Sunday, you could bet that team would have stayed the same against Swansea this weekend.